Love Across the Sands
by InkStainedBones
Summary: All Fortis has ever done is serve her people with no hope for herself, the only female Thorian alive. But when the Queen of her people and her brothers Bride falls ill she must travel to place she had not been since she first grew her fangs, in sands that hold sultry promise. For once, the sands call to her for something more . . . but what? Second book to Fatal Attraction
1. Chapter 1

**Hey to all of you who are back for Love Across the Sands, which in case you didn't know, is Fortis's book. This is the second book to Fatal Attraction, which is available to for download at .com as well as the first chapters to Love is Blue, Aphrodite's Request, Evolution, Fatal Attraction, and of course this chapter as well. The chapters for this story will be available for download a day or so before they are posted up on fanfiction, so if you wanna get it early just check the updates tab to see if it has been added, or to see the expected dates for the chapters release!**

**Fortis's POV**

_Mouths were meshing, tongues dancing together in perfect symphony. Teeth clashed, even though the kiss was gentle though desperate. I could feel my nails digging into his skin, one latched onto his scalp, tilting his head for more contact, moaning every time his body brushed against me own. Both of us were panting, our breathing loud in the quietness of night, but neither of us really seemed to notice as we kept diving in for more, neither of us stopping for air._

_I could feel one of his hands tangled in my hair, tugging and creating delicious sensations that danced down my spine, making my breasts tingle. His other hand was on my waist, his thumb sliding under my shirt, rubbing back and forth over sensitive skin. He wouldn't pull me flush against him, even though I wanted to feel the hardness of his body compared to the softness of my own._

_A growl formed in my throat when his tongue nicked a fang, and I tasted blood, sweet and rich, and a fire started within me that threatened to consume me._

_I needed more . . ._

I jolted awake, sweating, panting, the feeling of arousal that was so out of place and rare fading as quickly as it had come. I pushed back my long blond hair with a shaky hand, finding it plastered to my head from the sweat, and kicked off my blankets before throwing my legs over the side of the bed. I put my head in my hands, rubbing my face, trying to shake the images of the dream I had been having since I had hit maturity. I didn't know what it meant, and no one else seemed to know either, but I had come to conclusion it was just my body and heart crying out for something I would never know.

With that thought I stood, my legs shaky, and gasped in surprised when I looked up to find my brother, Kalin, standing in the corner of my room. I didn't know how long he had been there, but I knew long enough for him to have seen the effect of the dream.

"You were having that dream again, weren't you?" he asked, his green eyes bright with concern for me. It was misplaced, since I was the older of us both, but it seemed like he had gotten older ever since he had found his mate and taken over the Thorian clan as he was meant too.

"Yes," I replied wearily, wanting nothing more than a hot shower and some food, not to be having this conversation. I had spoken of the dream a hundred times, I had thought on it millions, and over all of the hundreds of years I still had neither managed to make it go away or to figure out what it meant.

"I think it means more than you think it does." He said cryptically, and my eyes swung up from the floor, matching green to his own, and narrowed on him. The way he had said it, with a weary confidence, like he was trying to give me a hint without me knowing it was one. And now, he refused to look at me, instead looking at a painting on the wall like he did not even know I was in the room.

"Did Rebecca say something?" I snapped, feeling my irritation rise. Rebecca was my brothers mate, and ever since she had gone into the Goddess realm to complete the bonding between her and my brother she had been acting odd. First thing was that she had grown fangs and attacked a little girl who lived in the clan, named Elizabeth. After claiming she had saved her life her and Elizabeth had since fallen into a coma. But every once in a while Rebecca would regain consciousness for a undetermined amount of time. She always refused to speak to anyone but Kalin, and I could only imagine the secrets that she was informing him on.

"Listen, I me and Philip are starting to get worried about Rebecca." Kalin said, looking at me again but completely ignoring my question all together. But the concern in his face made my irritation flee, for if Rebecca died my brother would fall into madness before he would follow her to afterlife as well, thus ending the line of the noble family.

While it was true that I was also noble blood I was also the only female Thorian alive. I was immortal, unlike the mortal woman the males bonded with, but I also shared their lack of bodily responses to the opposite sex. But unlike them, I did not think there was a mate out there waiting for me. I had been across the world and had found no such man.

"I thought Philip was able to keep her stable?"

"He is, but she is dropping slowly. We need to wake her up, she tells me the same thing, but she can't tell me how, she can't tell me what she needs because she doesn't know." His looks became uneasy. "Maybe, if you would go see her . . ."

"No." I said firmly. I hadn't seen her in the two months since she had bitten Elizabeth, and I did not want to. I was angry at her because she was doing things I didn't understand, only giving us riddles and pieces to work with and none of us had managed to put the pieces together in the least.

"Philip also said he would like to see you." His voice had changed, becoming hard and flat, and when he turned his back it was stiff with anger.

"I do not wish to anger you brother, but I have no wish to see your Bride right now." I said a little more softly, not wanting him to leave angry with me. He paused in my door way, turning slightly to give me his profile.

"I just hope when you finally let go of your petty anger we will not be lowering her body into the earth for it reclaim." And then he was gone, not even seeing the expression of shock and horror that crossed my face. Was it getting that bad? While I was angry with Rebecca I still loved her, she was my sister after all.

Taking my brothers words to heart I showered quickly and dressed before heading out to find Philip at the lab where his wife and Elizabeth were being kept and monitored. He was pouring over what looked to be lab results, but whether they were his wife's or Elizabeth's I wasn't sure. I could only hope they were Elizabeth's, for his wife had been in a coma for over a hundred years and the key to waking her up was not even within our grasp.

"Hey, Doc." I said in greeting, glad to have him back in the clan. He had been gone for a long time, the grief of losing his wife and his child too much to bear. But since Rebecca had come into the clan and he had been her doctor all her life he had agreed to come back. But if those results were from his wife I suddenly wasn't so sure it was a good thing.

"Fortis!" he said excitedly, jumping up from the table with the papers in hand, shoving them in my face. "Look, she is improving."

"Who is?" I asked wearily, not sure if I should encourage him or not.

"Elizabeth."

"Okay, but how?" still refused to get my hopes up, where would that get me?

"In everything! Her cells are regenerating at a faster pace, she no longer had cell death. Her genetic structure is changing as well, I cannot find the gene that limits females to only one child, and she may even be a pure Thorian female just like you."

While out males only had one Bride, they fell into madness when they reached the age of maturity until they found her. The females were always human, and could only have one child and it could only be male due to a curse put on our people long ago. I had been trying to find a way around both for years, and had made Elizabeth in hopes of making a new branch of Thorian women. But she began to experience cell death and this little girl who barely knew life began to slowly die. To hope now that she had a chance of living? It was almost too much.

"Are you sure?" I croaked, my throat was suddenly very raw. What could this mean? What did Rebecca do? I was the only female who had fangs, and I had bitten a person once, and he hadn't began to go through changes like this, I would have known. What did she have that I didn't?

"I did the test several times, I am more than positive. The only problem is I can't recreate it. I have taken samples from Rebecca's new fangs but found nothing out of the ordinary, they match up with yours."

I swallowed heavily, looking over at the little girl in the hospital bed, so small in comparison, hooked up to machines to keep her vitals and to give her fluids. Rebecca had spoken the truth, but how had she done it? Did she know?

"You do know what this means?" Philip asked me, and I found myself shaking my head without really hearing the question. "It means that Rebecca holds one of the keys to undoing what has been done."

She held immortality for the women? What I had tried so hard for?

"I need to save her life," I said softly, the knowledge kind of hitting me. Her life was literally in my hands.

"Yes," Philip said, nodding his head eagerly. "You need to discover the answer to this little riddle."

Who could possibly help us? Human medicine was behind us by years and there was only a few immortal species that we had alliances with, but which one of them could help?

Suddenly it clicked.

I began to dash out of the room, my mind already on a million other things.

"Where are you going?" Philip called, sounding surprised.

"I have to pack, if I don't hurry I might miss one of the few private flights out!" they only went about once or twice a month, and if my memory was right the next one was in about a week or so, and if I missed it I would have to wait three more weeks. I didn't know if Rebecca had that time.

"Where?"

"I am going to see the Sand Walkers!"

A place I hadn't been since I was small, I just hoped the remembered me and my father well, and that I didn't run into something unforeseen on the way.


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter and the first together were both available for download on Oct. 9****th**** at .com**

Kalin stroked Rebecca's forehead, feeling the sweat that made her skin sticky and clammy. He wished he could help her, but the only one who seemed to know the answer to this confusing and seemingly unsolvable riddle was the woman lying before him in a coma. She would awake every once in a while but the time she was conscious was very little, and she always spoke in confusing sentences. Sometimes he could make them out and get the gist of what she wanted him to do, other times her words would be slurred and garbled. Those were the times when she would awake with crazed eyes, desperately trying to convey everything that mashed inside her brain.

"I did what you told me to do, love." He whispered to her, sighing heavily. "I gave Fortis the hint about her dreams, and I finally managed to get her traveling. She is still angry over what happened with Elizabeth, but I sent her to Philip and she has seen the test results, you were right, the change is starting to take over." He stroked again, wishing she would open her eyes so that he could speak with her. Without the riddles, without the tasks. She was still connected to the other world, she had told him this, and due to that all of the information was channeling through her. Why she couldn't detach he didn't know, but suspected it was his Goddess trying to use Rebecca to do something.

While he loved his Goddess, he loved his bride more. He was suffering from loss of interaction. Thorian males needed to touch, to taste, to hear their Bride's voices. He didn't know how Philip had lived with his Bride in a coma all these years, but he felt a wealth of new found understanding a pity for the man. He also felt respect for him, for this man had been searching harder than anyone else for a solution to what was going on with Rebecca and Liza. They both held out hope that when Liza woke from her change she would have answers for them.

Closing his eyes he leaned his forehead against hers, feeling his heart hurting. He was on the verge of insanity already, and wished he could force this plot to go along quicker but felt like the helpless by standard that he really was.

"I love you, Rebecca." He whispered. "I love you, don't you dare leave me!"

So help the Thorian race if she did.

Fortis sat in the plane seat, her legs drawn, her feet resting on the back of the seat in front of her. She nibbled on her thumb, looking out the window, wishing that the pilot would hurry up with refueling the plane. The cooler that she had sitting on the floor board in front of her seat was only going to keep the serum she had cooled for several more hours. If the serum became warm it would be ruined and she would be unable to get it unless she went back home.

She was also extremely tired and would be able to sleep until they landed where they were supposed to and she then made the ten mile hike through the deadly jungle that bordered the hot sands of the Sand Walkers. And that was the smallest patch of jungle on the island. She had been to see the Sand Walkers twice in the life, once when she was just a little girl, before her fangs had even come in, and her father had been doing business with their king. And then once again she passed through about a hundred or so years ago, just wanting to stop in and renew their treaty and to see how their people were doing. The same king had been in charge, and he had remembered her, and had asked her to do some research on their people. He wanted to know if she could isolate the gene that allowed their people to have such long lives and see if she could mutate it to allow them to be immortal like the Thorians. She didn't know if she could do it but she had agreed to try.

So far her experiments had been fruitful, but she had been unable to experiment so she didn't really know how well she had done. She knew it wasn't done yet, though, but had decided to bring what she had with her in exchange for them to allow her to use one of their best spirit walkers to help her find out what was happening with Rebecca.

She sighed with relief when she heard the sound of the pilot coming up the steps. She was anxious to be getting this along, and she had no idea why. She hoped the same king was in charge, but the odds of that were slim at this point since he was reaching the pinnacle of his age, where his hair would solidify in color and his eyes would darken to almost black and he would then start to decline in health and stature. While she remembered his eldest son from the time she was small he had not been there when she had stopped by last time and things could be a little difficult if he had already married and taken over the throne. While they had an ongoing treaty the Sand Walkers were a weary bunch since they were usually always cut off from the rest of the world.

She allowed her head to loll against the headrest, letting her eyes slide shut as she head the engines of the plane beginning to start up, a lulling hum. Even while her mind seemed to be abuzz with trying to straighten all of this out her mind slipped into darkness before she knew it.

Fortis paced back and forth in front of the tree line, her backpack on her back and her cooler in hand. She had traveled light, knowing she was going to have to hike in dangerous territory and she might need to run. While she was with her dad none of the creatures in the forest had dared bother them, maybe because he gave off the vibe that said back off to all who dared oppose him. The second time she had come she had been coming from the other side of the island and had been able to bypass the forest all together.

She froze when she heard sound coming from the trees, dropping into a squat, feeling her fangs sharpen in her mouth her eyes sight becoming sharper, her muscles tensing. In a single instant she had transformed into a deadly weapon, as very few knew she could.

"Fortis?" a voice called, and she felt her muscles go slack, a frown etched onto her forehead. Hesitantly, she stood from her squat.

"Fortis?" a voice called again, with more movement from the trees. A woman came into view, her hair a dark brown, her eyes a sandy color, and a wide smile on her lips when she saw Fortis. She was flanked by two men, both whose hair was still a silver color and eyes were the lightest blue, young men. They all held small daggers in their hands and had swords strapped to their backs.

"Violet?" Fortis finally asked, feeling her face go slack with shock.

"You remember me," she said, her voice slightly accented, her skin a beautiful bronze. She was almost as tall as Fortis and moves with that fluid grace that was entrancing. It didn't help she had a curvy body and she was dressed like an amazon, her skirt and tube top made out of brown cloth to match her hair, singling she was unmarried.

"Of course I remember you!" she spouted, rushing forward to hug the woman. This woman was the king's second youngest daughter whom she had met the last time she was here. The woman hugged her back warmly, laughing with delight while the two young men stood idly by, looking like the wanted to be ready for battle but were inexperienced.

"I was worried you would not, it had been over a hundred years."

"Yes, and you were so small then, look at you now! You're a woman!"

"And you have not aged a single day." She said in awe, touching Fortis's cheek.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"We received notice you would be arriving today and so my father sent us here to retrieve you."

"So your father is still in charge?" she frowned through when the woman nodded. "Wait, you received word I would be here? Today? When?"

"About a week or so ago." She seemed to think the news was nothing important, for she kept talking. "My mother is excited to see you again as well, and both of my brothers. You will also be able to meet my baby sister."

"Breck and Kly are home?" normally Breck, the eldest, was out making treaties and checking on his clans investments. Kly usually brought home news about the outside world and made sure their clan was as up to date as they could be. Kly had been here when she had come last time, whereas Breck had been out.

"Yes, they must be."

"Why?" that could only mean someone important had died, a festival was upcoming, or their father needed their aid for something.

"For the wedding, of course."

Ah, one of the royal family was due to be married.

"Who would that be?"

"Breck of course. He must marry and ascend to the throne. Your timing could not have been better." She took the cooler from Fortis, opened it, took out the serum, and transferred it to one of their own that the men had been carrying. Not only had they known when she was coming but they knew that she had it and that her cooler was dying?

What kind of joke was this?

Smiling, though she was feeling an odd sense of forboding, she followed Violet into the forest.


	3. Authors Note UPDATE

**Hey guys, so update, for all of you who have been waiting for me to update. **

**I am going to I swear I am so sorry!**

**My computer crashed, then my husbands crashed, and then I got a new one and now we are moving!**

**But I can't live with myself if I don't like Fortis have her happiness, she kinda screams at me at night so I am gonna get started really soon I swear!**

**Thanks to all those who waiting, sorry!**

**Four cheers for Fortis being happy!**

***looks around and realizes I'm alone* okay well I am cheering!**


End file.
